A Coin Collection Story

Hey guys!

Got a fun little story emailed to me recently and made me think of y’all :)

I know I’ve been M.I.A. for a while, but let’s see if we can re-start this blog again and continue the thrill of collecting! I’ve still been at it behind the scenes here, and even started a new service helping people inventory and liquidate inherited coin collections (if you ever need any help, just shout!), but with life and biz/kids/covid/etc etc the poor blog’s kinda fallen by the wayside here…

But now we’re back! And let’s kick off the celebration with a fun story of yore when silver was still circulating somewhat consistently! Something I was never able to partake in myself but just SALIVATE at the thought of it!

Take it away, John!

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Hey J. Money.

I know you’re a fan of coins, so thought I’d share a cool quick story with you.

My father and I had collected coins ever since I was a child (I don’t actively collect these days and my dad still has the small collection that we pieced together), but where this interesting little story begins is with my high school job working at a small gas station in my hometown of York, PA.

I started working there when I was 16 and worked there for many years (even after college until I found my first professional job). One thing interesting about working at a gas station at that time is we would see a lot of coins from transactions throughout a day. I always made a habit of checking them. It was so easy to hear a silver coin when it hit the counter! Way different sound, and as soon as I heard it I knew it was going to be a good day!

In all I found quite a nice little collection of silver coins just by switching out a silver quarter here with a regular quarter of my own, no harm no foul! The gas station still got the 25 cents it asked for the coffee or whatever, and I got a silver coin that otherwise would have gone straight to the bank! None of them were super rare or anything, but for about $25 of my own money, I now have a collection worth $100s of dollars.

Not sure you could call this a side gig, but it’s an interesting thing for someone making a cashier’s pay at the time! Other people who worked with me caught on after a while and then competition began! They mostly sold the coins right away for silver value, but I’ve held onto mine all these years. Here’s what I found.

• Silver dimes (1941-1964) varying dates – 45 of them
• Silver quarters (1943-1964): 48 of them
• Half dollars (1942 – 1964): 11 of them
• Peace dollar: 2 of them
• Liberty dollar: 1 of them
• Steel pennies: 2 of them

I also found some older bills like red stamps, silver certificates and whatnot, but I didn’t hold onto those. All in all it was a fun little way to make working at a gas station a little better!

Cheers,
John

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Anyone remember times like these themselves? Or have any other stories they’d like to share with us? Email it on over and perhaps we’ll feature your story next!

Thanks for reading, everyone :)

For anyone new here, you could learn more about me and my projects here: jmoney.biz, and then more about my collecting journey specifically here: cointhrill.com/about

We also have an interview series where we ask collectors a set of questions to learn more about them, so if you’re interested in participating in that you can do so by clicking here: cointhrill.com/9-questions

Happy collecting!

-J$